Russia close to adding fuel to Iran nuclear plant

by Jeffrey Fleishman - Aug. 14, 2010 12:00 AMLos Angeles Times

Russia announced Friday that it will soon begin loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear-power plant, the initial step toward bringing the long-delayed project on line at a time when the U.S. is attempting to weaken Tehran's atomic program with new international sanctions.

Russia's state atomic agency, which is overseeing the plant near Bushehr, said low-enriched uranium will be added Aug. 21 but that the power station may not be fully active for months. Work on the facility began in the 1970s, when Iran staked much of its national pride on the development of nuclear energy.

"The event will symbolize that the period of testing is over and the stage of physical startup has begun," according to a statement released by the Russian atomic agency.

The $1 billion contract between Russia and Iran is designed to prevent Tehran from enriching uranium to weapons-grade strength. Russia has provided the 1,000-megawatt plant with low-enriched uranium, which has been sealed and monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran is also required to return fuel and plutonium generated at Bushehr to Russia for reprocessing.

Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency as saying, "God willing, we will prepare ourselves to transfer the fuel of the nuclear plant from outside of the plant to the heart of the plant inside the premises next week."

Although the Bushehr project is not connected to Iran's secret enrichment program, which the Western powers suspect is designed to make nuclear weapons, Washington has been frustrated that Russian plans to activate the plant send mixed signals to Iran.

The Obama administration pushed for a new round of U.N. economic sanctions in June in another effort to force Tehran to make its atomic program more transparent. The U.S. and European Union followed that move with tougher sets of unilateral sanctions.

Iran claims its nuclear ambitions center on generating civilian energy and producing medical isotopes. Salehi said U.N. inspectors will be invited to watch the unsealing of the fuel and that an inauguration ceremony will be held at Bushehr in the coming weeks.

After nuclear fuel is transferred to the reactor, the next step includes loading the fuel into the core, followed by triggering a nuclear reaction by moving fuel rods closer to one another.

The project was begun by the German firm Siemens in the 1970s under the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The plant on the Persian Gulf coast fell into disarray after the 1979 Iranian revolution and was restarted in the mid-1990s when Russia took over.

Bushehr was supposed to begin producing electricity in 2006, but there were construction delays.